Fall preventive safety equipment for climbers and elevated workers are well known in the art and typically employ a belt or harness worn by the user and connected to a cable for supporting the worker in case of an accidental slip from a ladder or fall from a platform or the like. In safety devices for ladder climbers, the harness may have a lock mechanism which slides along the cable during ascent but which locks thereto at the initiation of descent. In another arrangement, the apparatus being scaled may have a locking device anchored thereto through which the cable may slide during ascent of the climber and which locks the cable against reverse movement.
These types of prior safety devices have been useful in that they permit upward ascension of the climber without resistance and automatically adjust to the height attained during ascension, and prevent a fall of the climber therefrom without an intermediate slack period followed by a sudden jerk on the climber as the cable tautens.
While these prior safety devices have been useful for their intended purposes, they are subject to one or more disadvantages. The locking device statically locks the climber in position relative to the cable and must be mutually released to enable discension of the climber. If the locking device is on the harness of the climber and if the climber is within reach of the ladder, then this type of lock may not be objectionable. However, if the locking device is disposed along the cable upstream of and not reachable by the climber, or if the climber is not within reach of the ladder or is swinging therepast on a cable, then this type of locking device presents serious disadvantages.
A need has thus arisen for a safety device which automatically adjusts to the attained height of a climber or elevated worker and which eliminates the above disadvantages.